Diagnostic imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), x-ray, nuclear radiopharmaceutical imaging, ultraviolet/visible/infrared light, and ultrasound, have been used in medical diagnosis for a number of years. In some cases, the use of contrast media to improve the image quality or provide specific information has been ongoing for many years. In other cases, such as imaging with light or ultrasound, the introduction of contrast media is imminent.
The contrast agent must interfere with the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation used in the imaging technique, alter the physical properties of tissue to yield an altered signal, or, as in the case of radiopharmaceuticals, provide the source of radiation itself. Commonly used materials include organic molecules, metal ions, salts or chelates, particles (particularly iron particles), or labeled peptides, proteins, polymers or liposomes. After administration, the agent may non-specifically diffuse throughout body compartments prior to being metabolized and/or excreted; these agents are generally known as non-specific agents. Alternatively, the agent may have a specific affinity for a particular body compartment, cell, organ, or tissue; these agents can be referred to as targeted agents.
For agents which are injected or absorbed into the body and distributed by the blood, it is desirable to have an appropriate blood half-life. While extremely long half-lives (i.e., days or weeks) are unnecessary in clinical imaging situations and possibly dangerous (due to the increased chance for toxicity and metabolic breakdown into more toxic molecules), short half-lives are also not desirable. If the image enhancement lasts for too short of time, it is difficult to acquire a high-quality image of the patient. In addition, rapid clearance of a targeted agent will reduce the amount of the agent available to bind to the target site and thus reduce the “brightness” of the target site on the image.
Increasing the blood half-life of an imaging agent involves interfering with one or more of the following clearance mechanisms:
1) Renal excretion. Molecules below 60,000 dalton molecular weight, particularly small molecules, can be removed from the blood by nonspecific glomerular filtration in the kidneys. If the molecules exhibit some degree of binding to plasma proteins or other constituents of blood, only the free fraction will be available for filtration and the rate of renal excretion will be reduced accordingly.
(2) Hepatocellular uptake. If a molecule possesses hydrophobic character, some fraction of the complex is taken up by liver cells and excreted into the bile. In general, the greater degree of hydrophobicity a molecule possesses, the greater the hepatocyte uptake rate. Though hydrophobicity also leads to plasma protein binding and a reduction in the apparent free concentration of the molecule, the hepatocellular uptake rate can still be very high (D. Sorrentino et al., Prog. Liver Disease, pp. 203–24 (1990)), thus reducing the blood half-life. Reduction in blood half-life may or may not be accompanied by an increase in the total hepatobiliary excretion, i.e., the fraction of the administered dose which eventually appears in the feces. The latter quantity is determined by many factors other than the hepatocellular uptake rate, including the extent of cytosolic protein binding inside the hepatocyte, the affinity for canalicular (hepatocyte-to-bile) transport systems, effects on bile flow and enterohepatic recirculation. Extension of blood half-life must be shown by blood or plasma sampling, not simply by measuring decreases in the total hepatobiliary excretion. Similarly, simply obtaining and measuring significant plasma protein binding of a contemplated contrast agent is not sufficient to show that its blood half-life is longer due to lower renal excretion.
3) Reticuloendothelial (RE) or other systems. Large molecular weight substances, such as liposomes, polymers, proteins, and particles, can be rapidly cleared from the blood by recognition (e.g., opsonization, or coating with proteins prior to cellular uptake) and uptake into cells, particularly the RE cells of the liver (the Kupfer cells), spleen and bone marrow.
Two general strategies have been reported to increase blood half-life for imaging agents. One way is to covalently attach the imaging agent via strong or metabolizable chemical bonds to a large molecular weight polymer, protein, liposome, or particle. For example, gadolinium diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) has been attached to human serum albumin (HSA), poly-L-lysine, or dextran (A. N. Oksendal et al., J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, 3, pp. 157–165 (1993); S. M. Rocklage, “Contrast Agents,” Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Mosby Year Book, pp. 372–437 (1992)). This is done to reduce the rate of glomerular filtration in the kidneys and retain the agent in the blood. However, this can lead to long-term retention of the agent. In addition, the firmly bound imaging agents can potentially release toxic by-products such as free metal ions in the metabolism sites for the macromolecule. Furthermore, large conjugates may be difficult to target to specific sites in the body.
The second strategy has been applied to liposomes, polymers, proteins, and particles which are usually rapidly removed from the circulation by the RE system or by other means. The placement of long hydrophilic polymers, such as polyethyleneglycol (PEG), on the surface of the substance reduces uptake by the RE or other systems (C. Tilcock et al., Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 1148, pp. 77–84 (1993); A. A. Bogdanoy et al., Radiology, 187, pp. 701–706 (1993)). It is hypothesized that the large, strongly hydrated polymer groups interfere with the molecular process required for recognition and uptake of the substances. The disadvantages of this strategy include: a) high cost and cumbersome manufacturing processes; b) lack of targetability of the large conjugates; and c) applicability appears to be limited to large molecular weight substances.
A particular challenge is for targeted small molecules which possess some lipophilic character. These can suffer from rapid hepatocellular uptake and blood clearance, possibly reducing the “brightness” at the target site. This is a particular problem where lipophilicity is required to achieve targeting to proteins or other biological targets.
A special case of this problem is the development of small molecule blood pool agents. Current small molecule non-specific agents, such as Gd-DTPA for MRI, have relatively fast clearance from the blood and are thus not optimal for imaging blood vessels (i.e., MR angiography) or for monitoring the blood flow into the heart, brain, tumors, or other organs or lesions. Lipophilic agents that target plasma proteins are known in the art. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,880,008 and 5,250,285. While these agents bind to plasma protein, in particular to human serum albumin, they can also be subject to rapid hepatocellular uptake and reduced blood half-life.
There remains a need for contrast agents that are retained by the blood for a prolonged period of time.